A video camera with still image thumbnail display function is well known. The video camera extracts any one of frames or fields constituting a recorded moving image and reduces it's size, generates it as a still image thumbnail every a recorded moving image or a certain chapter in the recorded moving image, and displays as a thumbnail list screen these generated still image thumbnails on a liquid crystal panel for monitor mounted on a main body thereof.
For example, as a technique aimed at helping a user to perceive contents of an image associated with a still image thumbnail, a patent document 1 proposes an image processing apparatus that detects a person's face from a recorded still image, reduces the recorded still image to a certain size to which the detected person's face is fitted, and generates it as a still image thumbnail.
However, while the technique disclosed in the patent document 1 helps a user to perceive contents of an image associated with a still image thumbnail in comparison with the conventional still image thumbnail display function, if an image associated with the still image thumbnail is a moving image, there is a case where a user can not perceive contents of the moving image because the displayed thumbnail is a still image.
Meanwhile, there are many cases where an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) recorder or a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) recorder has motion thumbnail function for, when a focus (highlight frame) is matched to one still image thumbnail on a thumbnail list screen by a user's operation, displaying a moving image thumbnail instead of the still image thumbnail. The motion thumbnail function reproduces a moving image associated with the selected still image thumbnail during a certain period of time, generates a moving image thumbnail in which the reproduced moving image is reduced to the same size as the still image thumbnail, and displays the generated moving image thumbnail on a region of the corresponding still image thumbnail in a still image thumbnail list screen. A user is easy to perceive contents of the moving image by watching the moving image thumbnail displayed by the motion thumbnail function.